7 Nations Agree to Phase Out Fossil Fuels

7 Nations Agree to Phase Out Fossil Fuels

The heads of the G 7 leading industrial nations agreed to “decarbonize the global economy in the course of this century” at their meeting this week in Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the G 7 countries would phase out the use of fossil fuels by 2100, The Guardian reports. News World Report noted that leaders agreed to focus on the goal of limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius.
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The agreement comes as climate negotiators are also meeting in Bonn, Germany, to continue work toward an international climate agreement. The 2 degree target has already been stated in the course of those negotiations, but was reaffirmed in the G 7 meeting, which included the leaders of some of the world’s largest economies. The G 7 comprises the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Kofi Annan, chair of the Africa Progress Panel and former secretary general of the United Nations, said in a statement that the G 7 agreement “is encouraging and an essential first step to ensuring that agreement is honored.”

“Today, for the first time ever, G7 leaders have rallied behind a long term goal to decarbonize the global economy,” said Jennifer Morgan, global director for the climate program at the World Resources Institute, in a statement. “This long term decarbonization goal will make evident to corporations and financial markets that the most lucrative investments will stem from low carbon technologies.”